McAfee currently says 80,000 sites use this service. With ICM expecting as many as 500,000 registrations in its first year, the deal could significantly boost McAfee's market share.

ICM hopes this service and other planned add-ons will help persuade some of its long-time critics in the porn industry that .xxx is more than just a cynical money-grab.

Some domain registrars already offer security scanning as an up-sell to their domains and hosting services, but ICM is believed to be the first to offer this at the registry level.

When new top-level domains begin to launch in 2013, as a result of the expansion announced by ICANN last week, it is expected that many more registries will begin to bundle additional products, such as SSL certificates, with domain names.

ICM plans to make .xxx domains generally available on 6 December, with a trademark protection "sunrise" period beginning 7 September. A "landrush" for premium names will begin 24 October. ®